mrdelurk.... What version of Melodyne are you talking about? Melodyne Bridge? Most of the DAW's that include Melodyne with it use the lowest Melodyne available which is Essentials and it has only the basic "essential" functions. If you have the ESSENTIALS version, you do NOT have the ability to alter the formant of the notes. This is important as you will see later in this post.

Functions in the different versions: http://www.celemony.com/en/melodyne/functions

There are a bunch of HOW TO videos on youtube for Melodyne. Everything from getting started to the most advanced techniques.


Perhaps you should be using Autotune and not Melodyne Editor. (ME) For the style you are doing, Melodyne seems to be the wrong tool. Autotune would probably fit the job better.


Everything has it's limits and going 6 semitones in either direction is certainly pushing the envelope with melodyne to retain that transparent quality it's known for. If I recall correctly, I used ME to take a certain lady's voice who sang only the lead melody, and moved some of her notes to harmony notes. I don't recall the exact distance they were moved, it was quite far, but the result came out sounding halfway decent...after I spent some time adjusting the formants. You hear her starting around 30 seconds in. All of the harmony parts started out as a unison track of her singing with me, on the melody. I used Editor to move and fix the notes. She then sings a verse without Editor being used on it. She echos over the chorus in her natural voice then another harmony by Editor. There is another female singer on this as well.... providing some background fills towards the end. And again at the end, harmony by Editor as both ladies are singing. (neither of the ladies could sing harmony very well so ME was used to create one on the lead female vox)

The result is here>>>> http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=8575294

Melodyne Editor (and assistant) has formant control which, if used properly can be used to get those voices sounding a bit more natural. If you are not aware of what formants are or what they do, I suggest learning about them and playing with that control function if your version has formant control.

Basically, when you move a note more than half to a full semi-tone, you must adjust the formant to keep that voice sounding natural. If the pitch is moved and the formant is not.... you end up with some weird sounding stuff. I believe that is what you are describing as "tinny" in your post. Not EQ as I was thinking you were saying..... improper formants that don't match the pitch.

Youtube has a bunch of videos on ME....this one is on formants: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPAINeIGxMc


Some of what I heard in your clip sounds like what they show in this video.... formants are the answer... but...even then, if you listen to that clip soloed out... it's still not very natural sounding. The further you push a note from it's native tone.... the more you will need to adjust ALL of the parameters of that note to attempt to retain it's character. And the further you go, the more the artifacts will show up as evidenced in the clip you provided. As good as ME or AT is, neither of them can move notes large distances and have them sound natural. Technology just hasn't gotten there yet. Give them a few more years.

When you push something beyond it's design limits and get poor results, don't blame the software.

Last edited by Guitarhacker; 02/21/15 03:38 AM.
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